Gunshots End Lives Of Couple Wife, Husband Die In Hospital

March 23, 1992|By MICHAEL E. YOUNG, Staff Writer

PLANTATION -- A distraught husband killed his ailing, elderly wife as she lay on her bed at Humana Hospital-Bennett on Sunday, then turned the gun on himself because he did not want to live without her.

Soren Korsgaard, 84, of Tamarac, shot his wife, Angela, 80, in the temple with a small-caliber automatic handgun before shooting himself in the head, Plantation Police Sgt. Joe Bush said.

A horrified nurse, who heard two noises from her station about 50 feet from Angela Korsgaard`s room, found the couple shortly after 4:15 p.m., Bush said.

Angela Korsgaard was dead on her bed in the blood-spattered private room; her husband, bleeding badly and barely alive, was on the floor by her side. He was rushed to the hospital`s emergency room but died about 15 minutes later, Bush said.

The nurse told police that Korsgaard went into his wife`s room at the end of a fifth-floor corridor about 4:15 p.m. Five minutes later, he walked to the nurse`s station to ask about his wife`s medication.

A few minutes passed before the nurse heard noises and checked the hallway, the stairwell and finally Angela Korsgaard`s room.

Angela Korsgaard, who had been in the hospital since Jan. 30, suffered from cellulitis, a circulatory disease, and eventually would have had a leg amputated, Bush said.

``She was very ill and may or may not have had much longer to live,`` Bush said. ``And she was in pain and he wanted to put her out of her misery and he didn`t want to be without her.``

The Korsgaards` neighbors in Tamarac described them as a devoted couple who kept to themselves except for visits from their daughter and grown grandchildren. They were depressed over Angela Korsgaard`s lingering illness and the recent pronouncement from doctors about the amputation.

``They were despondent,`` said next-door neighbor Eva Venezia. ``She had been sick a long time, and when the doctors talked about cutting off her leg, that scared them.``

Before she went to the hospital, Angela Korsgaard rarely left their home, Venezia said. Her husband was in good health, though, and did everything for her.

``He took very good care of her. He did all the cooking, the shopping and everything,`` Venezia said. ``He was very devoted to her.``

Korsgaard appeared calm when he spoke to the nurse about his wife`s medication.

``He certainly didn`t do anything to arouse her suspicions,`` Bush said. But he apparently came prepared to kill his wife, then commit suicide. He left a note on the table next to his wife`s bed saying where he had left a spare set of car keys at home.

The door of Angela Korsgaard`s room was partially closed, Bush said, and the gunshots did not attract much attention.

``We haven`t talked with anyone else (in nearby rooms). We`re going to try not to disrupt all of the other patients,`` Bush said. ``This is not a case where we don`t know who the bad guy is.``

Still, Plantation`s crime scene unit spent hours in the room on Sunday night to piece together details of the shooting, Plantation`s first homicide of the year, Bush said.

``We`re pretty sure this guy did it, but we have to prove it to be able to close the case,`` he said. ``And how do we know there isn`t another bullet in there, or a note? It`s still a homicide and we have to treat it that way.``

Neighbors were shocked by the news.

``I feel terrible because he was such a wonderful man,`` Venezia said. ``He did everything for her and she was sick for such a long, long time. The only time she left the house was to go to the doctor. It was a lousy life.``